Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

Did some vegetable harvesting today with members of A Supportive Community For All at First Light Farm. Grabbed some cucumbers and tomatoes. Some of these went straight into a salad that night. Farm-to-Table in under 10 hours....

When I found out they had some holy basil, I asked for some. Thinking I'd only get enough for a meal, I was gifted an entire plant. So this is my new roomie. Now I gotta figure out how to keep her alive. I don't have the best green thumb....

This is actually not bad, and tastes like a Dutch processed chocolate soda. Surprisingly good.

But ho boy is it rich. About halfway through the bottle I was done with it. It's good Oreo flavor...but it's a LOT of Oreo flavor.

Thoughts Before Bed

Watching some Star Trek for Star Trek Day. While Trek is officially 58 years old, this episode is pushing 60....

Made a special treat last night off some Carne Guisada. Bare bones, but bare bones is still super good. I can never judge how long to stew it, but it usually comes out good regardless....

Finding a reliable source of good watermelon out here is changing my meal planning. Here we see four Jenn sized servings of watermelon....

This Week's Fancy Pants Meal: Creamy Pancetta Pasta

This was that crazy recipe I mentioned a few days ago that was 3100 calories per serving. In order to not die for 600% of the Recommended Daily Allowance of Fat, I took the recipe and removed the spaghetti from the equation and then broke it down to something more manageable.

I do think this recipe is really for a large amount of sauce, and they added spaghetti to the recipe because they did it in the video. Once it broke down to 10 servings, I then added back an appropriate amount of spaghetti.

What I ended up with was a pretty good creamy parmesan sauced spaghetti. If you like parmesan, you're gonna like this cause it's got a MASSIVE amount of it in the sauce. Careful with the saly and pepper, the parmesan is pretty salty as it is.

Served hot, it's great and creamy. But if it cools too much the sauce will congeal due to the amount of cheese in it. Reheating it also didn't seem to work real well, coming out more oily than creamy. In the future, I'd make it for immediate eating, but not for meal prep.

Yes, the recipe really did say "Boom Skiddly Bop."

# Creamy Pancetta Pasta

Mythical Kitchen
10.0 servings

0.5 pound pancetta (diced)
3.0 cloves garlic (minced)
1.0 cup heavy cream
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
8.0 ounces parmesan
10.0 ounces spaghetti

1 - Cook pasta as per box instructions.
2 - Add pancetta and garlic to a pan and cook until pancetta is crispy and the fat has rendered.
3 - Scoop out pancetta and garlic and set aside.
4 - Add cream to pan and heat over very low heat.
5 - Grate in a hefty amount of cheese and add salt and pepper.
6 - Add in cooked pasta and pancetta and garlic and toss.
7 - Boom skiddly bop, pasta’s done.

Makes 10 servings at ~400 calories per serving
Calories 395
Total Fat 26g
Total Carbohydrate 22g
Protein 14g

Normally only uses 2 ounces of spaghetti for one serving, but that could cause...death.

#thisweeksmeals #cooking

I really love the Breakfast MREs and wish they did more. This one had a maple muffin top (aka a pancake) with syrup , and maple bacon flavored spam slice. They used to also come with dehydrated cereal.

I can see why these could be comfort food for those out in the field. It's NOT quite what you get at home, but the flavors are there.

[Thoughts Before Bed]

One of the things become more and more apparent as I dig deeper and deeper into VR is the feeling of "embodiment."

I think I talked about how a few weeks ago, I locked my avatar into a T-Pose in order to work on her hair. I accidentally jumped into that locked body and had a minor panic when my movements weren't moving the avatar.

A few days ago, there was a major change in how Resonite animates it's avatars, and my avatar's movements were literally out of control. Everything was over driven, and my legs were stomping and moving far too jerkily and too powerfully.

It genuinely upset me because "this is not how I move." I spent two days talking with people on how to fix this, installing pieces and fixing movements. And while it's still not 100%, it's far closer to what it was.

But the tought process as I was doing this was "my body is not working." Not "my avatar isn't working" but "my body isn't working." The same feeling I got when my pinched nerve and suddenly my arm just wouldn't work anymore.

And I began thinking "is this how folks with dystonia feel? They try to move their arm a certain way, but the muscles and nerves don't do it correctly?"

Embodiment, proper embodiment, is a wierd sensation in VR. I know it's not real. And yet I react as it if it is. The pic below was literally me sitting in bed, as my avatar was sitting in bed, and realizing "these hands are MY hands."

Of all the movies I'd love more information about its preproduction, it's TRON. The concept art dating back to when it was going to be a traditionally animated movie points to a pretty altered story.

A design point I really would have loved to see in the movie is that you can see the MCP castle from EVERYWHERE because it's so huge. Something I think about when I see Mt Ranier and realize it's 70 miles away.

BRING BACK BIG GLASSES YOU COWARDS THEY WERE ADORABLE

Non-Fiction on the Left, Fiction on the Right.

Personal life philosophy.....

Tonight feels like a Disney Channel Special Sci Fi Double Feature Night, so tonight, we're watching The Black Hole and Tron.

Comics I'd love to read again....

Mmmm...six year old breakfast.

Woke up early today and took a trip up to Bellingham to meet up with @Aminorjourney . Nikki is the voice of Carrie in the Closetspace comics, and author of all her music, and because of that, a dear friend I would do most anything for.

Also got to meet the entire @show crew and a had grocery store lunch with them and caught up for an hour. It was good to see Nikki, @amerikate and @pyoor and meet the names I've heard over the years. :)

I'm sad we didn't have much more time, but they were on a work trip, and a schedule, and time was short. I gave her some signed prints and a sketch I did last night just for her.

I need to see them more often.

I took a little time getting back home, enjoying the summer and because I rarely roadtrip these days to save money. Ended up booking it back home to make physical therapy in time, then got groceries than came home and napped for an hour in the Air Condiitioned office.

Safe travels, TE. Have fun up there. :)

Ooooh, this looks like a good recipe. One serving, but I can scale that up if necessary. Just calculate this nutritional information and...YIKES.

To Ice Cream, or Not To Ice Cream....

I haven't made Teaberry Ice Cream this season. So I'm leaning Ice Cream....

Homemade tacos for breakfast? Don't mind of I do!